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From: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

He Calls for Holiness and Purity

[1] Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus,
that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God,
just as you are doing, you do so more and more. [2] For you know what
instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. [3] For this is the
will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from immorality;
[4] that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness
and honor, [5] not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know
God; [6] that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matters
because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly
forewarned you. [7] For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in
holiness. [8] Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but
God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

Commentary:

1. St Paul encourages the Thessalonians "in the Lord Jesus" to follow
his advice: he does not make this plea in his own name or using his
personal influence but in the name of the Lord Jesus. Those who have
positions of authority in the Church should be obeyed, above all, for
supernatural reasons (that is what God desires) and not for any
personal qualities they happen to have or simply because they are
"superiors". It is this outlook which causes St Ignatius Loyola to say
that "laying aside all private judgment, we ought to keep our minds
prepared and ready to obey in all things the true Spouse of Christ our
Lord, which is our Holy Mother, the hierarchical Church" ("Spiritual
Exercises", 353).

The Thessalonians already knew the commandments, but knowing them is
not enough; they must be put into practice. St John Chrysostom
comments: "Good land does something more than give back the grain put
into it; and therefore the soul should not limit itself to doing what
is laid down, but should go further [...]. Two things make for
virtue--avoiding evil and doing good. Fleeing from evil is not the
be-all of virtue; it is the beginning of the path that leads to virtue.
One needs, in addition, to have an ardent desire to be good and to do
good" ("Hom. on 1 Thess, ad loc.").

3. What the Apostle says here reflects our Lord's teaching in the
Sermon on the Mount: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48). The call to holiness is a universal one:
it is not addressed only to a few, but to everyone: "Christ, the Son of
God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as 'alone holy',
loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to
sanctify her (cf. Eph 5:25-26); he joined her to himself as his body
and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.
Therefore all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or
are cared for by it, are called to holiness, according to the Apostle's
saying: 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification' (1 Thess
4:3; cf. Eph 1:4)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 39).

In the Old Testament holiness is the highest attribute of God. He is
holy, and he asks men to be holy, pointing out that the model and cause
of man's holiness is the holiness of God: "You shall be holy; for I the
Lord your God am holy" (Lev 19:3).

The universal call to holiness was the core of the teaching of the
founder of Opus Dei; it was a message he preached constantly from l928
up to his death in 1975: "We are deeply moved, and our hearts
profoundly shaken, when we listen attentively to that cry of St Paul:
'This is the will of God, your sanctification' [...]. He calls each and
every one to holiness; he asks each and every one to love him--young
and old, single and married, healthy and sick, learned and unlearned,
no matter where they work, or where they are" ("Friends of God", 294).

"Christ's invitation to holiness, which he addresses to all men without
exception, puts each one of us under an obligation to cultivate our
interior life and to struggle daily to practise the Christian virtues;
and not just in any old way, nor in a way which is above average or
even excellent. No; we must strive to the point of heroism in the
strictest and most exacting sense of the word" ("ibid.", 3).

4-8. Man "is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor
since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day [...].
His very dignity therefore requires that he should glorify God in his
body (cf. 1 Cor 6:13-20) and not allow it to serve the evil
inclinations of his heart" (Vatican II, ("Gaudium Et Spes", 14).

"Immorality" (v. 3): the word used would be translated as
"fornication", were the style classical Greek; however, by St Paul's
time the word had come to refer to any kind of sexual practice outside
marriage or not in accordance with the aims of marriage. The word
translated as "body" literally means "vessel" and it can refer either
to one's body or to one's own wife. If "wife" is meant, then the
passage should be taken as an exhortation to married fidelity and to
proper use of marriage. Whichever meaning is correct, the sacred text
is saying that God calls us to exercise self-control in holiness and
honor; that means that one's body and its functions should be used in
the way God means them to be used. The Lord of life has entrusted to
men and women the mission to preserve life and to transmit it in a
manner in keeping with human dignity. "Man's sexuality and the faculty
of reproduction wondrously surpass the endowments of lower forms of
life; therefore the acts proper to married life are to be ordered
according to authentic human dignity and must be honored with the
greatest reverence" ("Gaudium Et Spes", 51).

"Therefore," Monsignor Escriva comments, "when I remind you now that
Christians must keep perfect chastity, I am referring to everyone--to
the unmarried, who must practise complete continence; and to those who
are married who practise chastity by fulfilling the duties of their
state in life. If one has the spirit of God, chastity is not a
troublesome and humiliating burden, but a joyful affirmation.
Will-power, dominion, self-mastery do not come from the flesh or from
instinct. They come from the will, especially if it is united to the
Will of God. In order to be chaste (and not merely continent or decent)
we must subject our passions to reason, but for a noble motive, namely,
the promptings of Love" ("Friends of God", 177).

In addition to giving reasons for practising the virtue of chastity,
the Apostle warns that God will punish those who commit sins against
this virtue. "These crimes we are commenting on", says St John
Chrysostom, "will in no way be overlooked. The enjoyment they give us
is quite outweighed by the pain and suffering their punishment earns"
("Hom. on 1 Thess, ad loc.").

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Matthew 25:1-13

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Maidens

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [1] "Then the Kingdom of Heaven shall be
compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the
bridegroom. [2] Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. [3]
For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; [4]
but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. [5] As the
bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. [6] But at
midnight there was a cry, `Behold the bridegroom! Come out to meet
him.' [7] Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. [8] And
the foolish said to the wise, `Give us some of your oil, for our lamps
are going out.' [9] But the wise replied, `Perhaps there will not be
enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for
yourselves.' [10] And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and
those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the
door was shut. [11] Afterwards the other maidens came also, saying,
`Lord, lord, open to us.' [12] But he replied, `Truly, I say to you, I
do not know you.' [13] Watch therefore, for you know neither the day
nor the hour."

Commentary:

1-46. The whole of chapter 25 is a practical application of the
teaching contained in chapter 24. With these parables of the wise and
foolish virgins and of the talents, and His teaching on the Last
Judgment, our Lord is again emphasizing the need for vigilance (cf.
note on Matthew 24:42). In this sense, chapter 25 makes chapter 24
more intelligible.

1-13. The main lesson of this parable has to do with the need to be on
the alert: in practice, this means having the light of faith, which is
kept alive with the oil of charity. Jewish weddings were held in the
house of the bride's father. The virgins are young unmarried girls,
bridesmaids who are in the bride's house waiting for the bridegroom to
arrive. The parable centers on the attitude one should adopt up to the
time when the bridegroom comes. In other words, it is not enough to
know that one is "inside" the Kingdom, the Church: one has to be on the
watch and be preparing for Christ's coming by doing good works.

This vigilance should be continuous and unflagging, because the devil
is forever after us, prowling around "like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). "Watch with the heart, watch with
faith, watch with love, watch with charity, watch with good works
[...]; make ready the lamps, make sure they do not go out [...], renew
them with the inner oil of an upright conscience; then shall the
Bridegroom enfold you in the embrace of His love and bring you into His
banquet room, where your lamp can never be extinguished" (St.
Augustine, "Sermon", 93).